


The Grass is Greener

by StevetheIcecube



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Genre: (sort of), Character Study, F/F, Flowers, Fluff, Nature
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-06 22:49:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13421265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevetheIcecube/pseuds/StevetheIcecube
Summary: Rex observes a couple of moments when Mòrag isn't quite the strict, uptight person he expected her to be.-“Interesting,” she said, digging her fingers into the sand and lifting a handful closer to her face. Some of it trickled through her fingers as she raised it higher. “It acts like water but feels like dust.”





	The Grass is Greener

When they arrived in Leftheria, everyone was taken aback by the new landscape; the colours, the sky, the shape of the cloud sea, the native animals, everything about it was different, so everyone was slightly in awe for a short while. There was something amazing about seeing new things, so no one paid any heed to the stunned reactions of their companions. It was nothing unusual, after all, if everyone was doing it, so there was no need to act as if it was a concern.

As such, no one thought anything of the way Mòrag, their newest companion at the time, reacted to the place they were in. Everyone was curious about her, of course, but they were all a tad wary of asking too many questions of the Special Inquisitor of Mor Ardain. There were lines you sometimes couldn’t cross, and no matter the level of curiosity they all held about her, they didn’t want to grill her and risk losing her companionship. Not that they were surprised, of course, but it turned out she was incredibly useful on the battlefield.

It was pretty entertaining, though, when Mòrag bent down to touch the ground beneath them only to recoil when her hand touched it. “Are these…?” She muttered, trailing off and clearly not speaking to anyone in the party. She tentatively reached her hand out once more to touch it before trailing her fingertips across the surface. “Rex, you know these islands. What is this substance?”

Rex looked at her for a moment, unable to hide the small smile from his face. He hadn’t realised when actually in Mor Ardain that the way the cloud sea interacted with the inhabitable land there was completely different to how it acted in Leftheria. “It’s sand,” he said. “The cloud sea repeatedly washes over these areas, breaking up the rock formations, and over time they get down to be really small.”

“Interesting,” she said, digging her fingers into the sand and lifting a handful closer to her face. Some of it trickled through her fingers as she raised it higher. “It acts like water but feels like dust.”

“I’ve never thought about it that way,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. It wasn’t so strange to see Tora and Poppi having fun with the sand (even though Tora was probably going to have a task getting it out of his fur later), but seeing a grown adult marvel over it was something completely different. “Careful with bringing it too close to your face, it hurts like anything if you get it in your eyes.”

“I am perfectly aware of what happens when you get small particles in your eyes,” Mòrag said, and the moment of fascination in her face was over. She let the sand drop back to the surface of the titan and started to continue on the path to Fonsett. From there, Rex pretended to ignore the way her eyes kept drifting to the strange structures of Leftheria and he forced himself to avert his eyes as they took the path through the cloud ridge for the sake of not getting murdered by her for laughing. It wasn’t exactly unusual to react to a new environment, but it was amusing to see the usually unflappable Mòrag look so fascinated all the same.

However, the way she reacted to the environment around them became a lot stranger when they took a trip back to Gormott to give Tatazo a look-in. This environment wasn’t strange to anyone. Almost everyone in Alrest who had travelled anywhere had been to Gormott; other than Indol, there weren’t really any other advanced places that couldn’t immediately be described as hostile to another. Trading too closely in Uraya could get your wares banned from Mor Ardain and vice versa, whereas the same didn’t apply to Gormott.

Of all people, they didn’t expect Mòrag to act strangely in Gormott. She must have been to the country tens of times; she clearly went there frequently on business and she even mentioned she’d been raised there, or at least spent part of her childhood there, yet the way she was acting was frankly off.

“Hey Mòrag, what are you doing?” Rex asked, after probably the fifth time that Mòrag had tentatively positioned her feet in an awkward position while continuing to move through the plains of upper Gormott.

“Nothing in particular,” she said, still staring intently at the ground beneath them. This was strange, she was usually incredibly sure of her footing. Even when they were in entirely new places, her eyes were always up and she always knew exactly what was coming, usually before anyone else did.

“Why are you being so careful, then?” He asked. “It’s just grass, it’s not going to eat you.”

“I am aware,” she said, but she still didn’t change what she was doing. Rex looked down at her feet to try and work out what it was, but he still couldn’t fathom it for quite a while. They were almost at their destination when Rex figured it out.

“Are you trying not to step on the flowers?” He asked. He tried to keep the grin off his face and especially out of his voice, but it was so hard. Mòrag was a grown adult and possibly one of the most intimidating people he knew, and she was avoiding stepping on flowers? That was absolutely golden and completely outside of her reputation as a scary military person.

“I don’t see why that would be my aim,” she said, but the look on her face told Rex otherwise, and even though she looked mildly embarrassed about being found out, she still didn’t stop doing it.

Later that night, when they were sitting out by the fountain in Torigoth and Mòrag had gone...wherever she went when she didn’t tell them where she was going, Rex decided to mention it again and see if anyone could shed light on the frankly quite strange behaviour. “Did you see what Mòrag was doing earlier?” He asked.

“Yeah, you said,” Nia said. “She was avoiding the flowers on the grass. Don’t know why, there are plenty of them, and they’re resilient little things. Takes a lot more than Ardanian military boots to destroy the wildlife in Gormott.”

“Wonder what Gormott was like right after the war,” Rex said. Talking about the war in Torigoth was asking for trouble, and he caught someone glaring at him as the woman walked past. Oops. “Or maybe I don’t wonder.”

“I don’t remember anyway,” Nia said. “So don’t ask me. You’d be better off asking Mòrag, I guess. Though you’re probably in her bad books after you pointed out that she was being careful about not killing flowers.”

“I just thought it was strange,” Rex said. “She doesn’t seem like the type of person to care so much about that kind of thing, you know?” He shrugged and leaned back against the edge of the fountain. It was cool here, and calm. No matter how busy Torigoth seemed, the fountain was always so peaceful.

“You’re right,” Nia said, “but there’s a lot we don’t know about Mòrag, so don’t just press her about everything you find out. It just makes you look a bit weird.”

Rex opened his mouth to protest, and at that moment Nia shoved her hand over his mouth and nodded down the street. Brighid and Mòrag were coming up the street, chatting. Mòrag was smiling, and neither of them had spotted the pair sitting at the fountain yet. “Quick,” she hissed, and pulled him round to the other side of the fountain so they wouldn’t walk directly past them.

“What are you-”

“Shh!” She said, putting a finger to her lips and turning to watch the two. They kept walking up the street, and after glancing round, Brighid moved her hand and interlaced her fingers with Mòrag’s. Nia made a muffled noise Rex couldn’t interpret.

As they watched, the couple came across a patch of street where grass and flowers were poking through and, as before, Mòrag went out of her way to avoid them. “Why do you do that?” Brighid asked, a soft, teasing note to her voice.

“I like flowers,” Mòrag said. “I don’t see any point in killing them when I can avoid it, seeing as there are times I can’t avoid it. There’s so much life here…” Nia made another noise of some kind. She was really bad at following her own advice. “Who’s there?” Mòrag called, pulling her hand out of Brighid’s.

“Just us!” Rex called, debating internally whether he should stand up or not. If he didn’t stand up and show that he wasn’t hiding anymore it might look rude, but if he stayed down here he looked less guilty. “Appreciatin’ the peace and quiet.”

“Well, good night then,” she said. The softness in her voice that had been there when she thought Brighid was the only one there was gone. “I would recommend you don’t stay out here too late. It’s best to make an early start if we want to get anything done in Torigoth tomorrow.”

“Good night Mòrag,” Nia called, also not standing up. “Seeya in the morning.” Rex heard the two of them leave to go into the inn, and once they were gone, Nia turned back to face him. “It’s a Mor Ardain thing,” she said.

“What?” He asked. What was an Ardanian thing? Them holding hands?

“Mòrag not wanting to step on the flowers, idiot,” she explained. “They don’t have flowers growing in Mor Ardain, not sure if you noticed that one. Gormott is her second home and she doesn’t want to ruin it like Mor Ardain.”

“Huh,” he said. “I guess I never saw it like that. Mor Ardain is kind of sad, isn’t it?”

“I’m sure if you said that to Mòrag, you wouldn’t get to take another breath,” Nia said with a laugh. “Come on, let’s head inside. We have another day of watching Mòrag dodge flowers tomorrow, after all.”


End file.
